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After two very hot days on the road, we are in an air-conditioned hotel room in Gonio, just south of Batumi, on the Black Sea coast of Georgia.
Day One was a short hop from Tbilisi to Borjomi, a spa town and the source of Georgia’s most famous mineral water. We circled the gilded statue of St George in Tavisuplebis Moedani (Freedom Square) on our way out of town and made for Gori, birthplace of Joseph Stalin and home to the Stalin Museum. The collection of papers, photos, and artifacts, including a private railway car, is impressive and well displayed, although the very existence of a museum dedicated to the life and accomplishments of a man who ordered deportation and death of so many is something of a puzzle. Georgia seems proud to claim the man who became a world-famous revolutionary and helped to throw off the tyranny of the Czars, even though he later became a brutal dictator.
We arrived Borjomi mid-afternoon; the temperature was well into the 90s, and the wide, leafy streets were a relief. After checking into our hotel, we walked into the town and strolled through the “water park,” with drinking fountains and swimming pools of mineral water, all sorts of refreshments and amusements, including a little roller coaster that we dared each other to ride.
Day Two was a long, amazing drive over the Goderidze Pass (2025 meters) and over at least 60 KM of dusty, unpaved roads. Jim and Dora the Explorer both performed like champions. Other highlights: a brief stop at Zarzma Monastery; Turkish coffee beside a cold, rushing stream where we dipped our toes; villages of wooden houses near the Goderidze summit; a group of young people who watched the car while we cooled down in a river; and our first Black Sea beach at Gonio, smooth round stones in every color from black and white to green, pink, ochre, speckled granite; dinner on the strand while the sun slid away into the water.